How Major League Baseball dominates the big data and mobile game

There is more data in baseball than perhaps any other sport. From the basic stats — balls, strikes, runs — to the more complicated — pitch angles, on-base percentages — nearly everything that goes on during a nine-inning game is recorded in some way shape or form.

Major League Baseball, perhaps better than any other professional sports league, crunches all of that big data and delivers it in a nice way for its fans.

The MLB focused on providing live game-action and instant replays to devices more than a decade ago, and the league also invested in mobile eight years ago. Both decisions are paying off big dividends — MLB.com gets 12 million visits per day, and the MLB At Bat app is the top-grossing app on iOS.

“We bet on video in 2002 before most folks were even looking at video, and then we bet on mobile in 2005 three years before the iPhone,” said MLB Advanced Media CEO Bob Bowman in the video above.

Speaking of big data at the ballpark, there’s an interesting app built in Seattle called IdealSeat that uses crowd-sourced data to help baseball fans increase their chances of catching a foul ball. GeekWire tested out IdealSeat in July at Safeco Field, but still came away empty-handed.

Watch the video above to see how MLB handles its data, as well as a familiar face.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.